These are the tales of the creation of the model of the Isle of Stoner Railway. It is a 009 model being 4mm to the foot or thereabouts.

Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Disaster and then...

I packed everything ready for the show and then came the moment of truth. I had to separate the three sections. This was something I'd been putting off and so I removed the nuts and pulled the Underhill end away from the new bit, it was a bit tight but came away cleanly. The new board had a single length of 2x1 timber as a balancing leg which worked OK at first... Nuts off the cheese factory end and nothing, I'd welded the two sections with scenery. I inserted a screwdriver to lever them apart and it all went tits up. The 2x1 twisted off and the new end plummeted to the floor which pivoted the old bit up in the air the whole lot balancing precariously on one trestle. Trying not to panic I ran to find help in the shape of my daughter, with her help I got it back level and with some shouting and swearing and not a little brute force I pulled the new bit away from the old and rested it on a table. Surprisingly there was very little damage.

There was nothing to be done there and then so I went into a bit of a decline. Much thought later I concluded that the new section needed trestles of its own so up with a lark and off to B&Q to buy some of their banana shaped timber and I was in the shed by 10am.

After the usual inability to measure coming to the fore I settled to the job in hand and had a trial reassemble and all seemed to be OK.

So, after a spot of lunch I loaded up the car which was rammed to the roof. The extension has made it so that I really need a van, lucky the show is only in the village.

Anyhow I'm all set up in the museum now and looking forward to playing trains for three days.

About Me

I am the benign dictator of the Isle of Stoner which is a small but perfect Island which lies roughly one hundred miles south of Newquay, Cornwall. The sun always shines and the population are always happy.